Indoor Navigation On Your Smartphone, Using the Earth's Magnetic Field 94
MrSeb writes "Researchers from the University of Oulu in Finland has created an indoor navigation system (IPS) that uses the Earth's innate magnetic field to ascertain your position — just like a homing pigeon or spiny lobster. According to IndoorAtlas, the company spun off by the university to market and sell the tech, its system has an accuracy of between 0.1 and 2 meters. The Finnish IPS technology is ingenious in its simplicity: Basically, every square inch of Earth emits a magnetic field — and this field is then modulated by man-made concrete and steel structures. With a magnetometer (compass), which every modern smartphone has, you can first create a magnetic field map — and then use that map to navigate the shopping mall, underground garage, airport, etc. Compared to most other IPSes, which require thousands of WiFi or Bluetooth base stations to achieve comparable accuracy, IndoorAtlas' infrastructure-free approach sounds rather awesome."
good in theory, bad in practice (Score:5, Insightful)
How exactly is one expected to create these maps then? Every time something metallic or magnetic is moved in the vicinity the previous map is now invalid.
Re:good in theory, bad in practice (Score:4, Insightful)
Especially after pranksters start leaving magnets in random places...
BS meter pegged (Score:5, Insightful)